Tom and Rita
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: It shouldn't have worked, but it did. The short-lived romance of Tom Riddle and Rita Skeeter, shown in five drabbles.
1. Inevitable

**Author's Note: **Written for…

The 5 Drabbles Competition. _Crack pairing:_ Tom Riddle/Rita Skeeter. _Prompt:_ teal

**Inevitable**

The first time they met, she wore a tight teal dress and spilled a drink all over him. He was drunk and couldn't keep his eyes off her. They were both still human, and lonely. He was bored and she was young. It shouldn't have worked, but it did.

It was only meant to be one night. No need for last names, or questions, or complications. They were just Tom and Rita. But he came back the next night and asked her to come home with him when her shift was done, and she couldn't say no.

She swore on the third night that she wouldn't leave with him, but he came back with emerald earrings that matched her eyes. He was handsome and charming and mature, unlike all the boys her age.

She was already falling in love with him.


	2. New Again

**Author's Note: **Written for…

The 5 Drabbles Competition. _Crack pairing:_ Tom Riddle/Rita Skeeter. _Prompt:_ rock

**New Again**

Rita hardly ever went home these days. It was hard to believe her life had changed so drastically in just three weeks. She'd gone from waiting tables to being waited on in the most expensive restaurants in the country.

Tom was her world now. He was smart and rebellious. He'd spend the days telling her all about his travels, and at night he would take her out to fancy parties Rita would never get into on her own. She wanted to travel the world with him – elope and forget all about her dead-end job and unsupportive family.

One day they took a walk on the beach and he told her that he was going away for a while, and she should join him.

Rita watched the way the waves washed all the sand off a pile of rocks, and she thought of how she was a rock and Tom was her wave, making her new again.


	3. Humanity

**Author's Note: **Written for…

The 5 Drabbles Competition. _Crack pairing:_ Tom Riddle/Rita Skeeter. _Prompt:_ yoga

**Humanity**

She confided in Tom her desire to become an animagus after two short months.

It had been a dream of hers ever since third year – what better way to secure her freedom than to become an animal? But she'd never managed it.

She thought he'd laugh at her, or think her mad. Instead, he patiently tutored her for weeks in transfiguration and taught her breathing exercises he'd learned abroad – yoga, he called it – until she finally made her first, dizzying transformation into a beetle.

He couldn't see her at first, a tiny insect flying above his head, and he screamed her name into the empty woods. She wasn't sure how to go back at first, but the desperation she thought she heard in his voice helped to ground her.

He flooded her mind with memories and human desires and all at once she was Rita again and had fallen on top of him.


	4. Walks in the Wood

**Author's Note: **Written for…

The 5 Drabbles Competition. _Crack pairing:_ Tom Riddle/Rita Skeeter. _Prompt:_ An Old-Fashioned Song by John Hollander (poem)

**Walks in the Wood**

Rita had only one good memory from childhood, and it was running through these woods with her brother, years before he had died.

It was one of the first things she'd told Tom, and these woods were the place they spent the most time.

Every inch of the dirt floor looked different to her; every tree had scratches and broken limbs from where she'd tried to climb them. The stream where her brother taught her to fish. The glen where she and Tom made love.

But they were cutting it down now. Soon all her memories would be gone.

She wondered if it was an omen.


	5. Fighting for Peace

**Author's Note: **Written for…

The 5 Drabbles Competition. _Crack pairing:_ Tom Riddle/Rita Skeeter. _Prompt:_ "Elastic Heart" by Sia (song)

**Fighting for Peace**

It was all over the papers: another death.

She'd chosen not to see the red flags. Now that it was ending, she couldn't stop them anymore.

_War on the horizon._

She didn't think he was serious, all those things he said that made her sick to her stomach as she remembered.

She wanted to scream, to run and tell everyone who'd listen – he's a _murderer_.

But who would believe her? She didn't even want to believe herself.

Eight months of happiness when the world was falling apart.

She didn't know his name. He was just Tom. He'd probably lied about that, too.

She couldn't do it anymore. She'd have to move on. She could be strong, and survive.

"Rita," he said when she told him she was leaving.

"Tom," she said in reply. The newspaper was laying open on the table between them.

It was fitting, she thought as she left their flat with nothing but her wand. They ended just as they'd begun.

Just Tom and Rita.


End file.
